Death of Queen Fabiola: December 5, 2014


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Luxarazzi : Grand Ducal Family in Brussels

The Gran Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa and Archduchess Marie-Astrid were seen leaving royal domain in Laeken on Saturday night. Fabiola was aunt to Henri and Marie-Astrid.
 
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Princess Alexandra of Kent was one of the bridesmaids for Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark.

She joined ranks with Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark, with Princess Irene of the Netherlands, with the Infanta Doña Pilar, with Princess Benedikte of Denmark, with Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, with Princess Anne d'Orléans and with Princess Tatiana Radziwill....

:flowers:
Princess Alexandra was the daughter of a Greek Princess, she was a close relative of the bride. So I think in that wedding she didn't represent the British RF, she was bridesmaid to her second cousin.
 
Princess Alexandra of Kent was one of the bridesmaids for Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark.

She joined ranks with Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark, with Princess Irene of the Netherlands, with the Infanta Doña Pilar, with Princess Benedikte of Denmark, with Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, with Princess Anne d'Orléans and with Princess Tatiana Radziwill....

:flowers:




Well, I didn´t state she was lower ranking than these women ( although I think there´s a difference between a King´s daughter like AM of Denmark, and a daughter of a royal duke, in my opinion).
Being a bridesmaid at a royal wedding once in half a century is not what I mean with "representing the crown and country"! She was possibly chosen by Sophia at the time because she was the proper age and was linked to the greek royal dynasty by her mother; She didn´t attend because the Queen might have asked her to respresent Britain at this particular wedding.
Nowadays conciderations about which Royal attends what event depends mainly on who has the time to go and if there was a personal bond or not and not about rank and style.
Princess Alexandra had, as far as I am informed, not such a close relationship to Fabiola so why should she now, an elderly lady herself, suddenly start going on royal funerals?!
 
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Originally Posted by wartenberg7 View Post
[...] As far as I can recall she never represented the family or the country at an important event abroad [...]

She has, albeit some time ago. For example, she represented the Queen when Nigeria gained its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 October 1960, and opened the first Parliament on 3 October. Also undertaken royal tours , eg visits to Canada, Italy, Oman, Hungary, Norway, Japan, Thailand, Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands.

Having said that, I think it's unlikely she would go. I think DoE, Charles or Wessexes
 
Queen Mathilde the first nighty and yesterday we saw King Philippe in the Evening going to Stuyvenberg Castle. They spent part of the nights near their late beloved Aunt.
King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola started Philippe 's Education to be a good King.
When the Princes of Liege were so often not at home, TM were there.
There was real love between Mathilde and Fabiola.
There was no love between Fabiola and Lilian and no love between Fabiola and Paola, although a great Respect between King Albert II and Queen Fabiola.
 
The late Queen will be transferred at the Chapel of Laeken Castle because She lived there so happy with King Baudouin from 1960 to 1993 en had 3 more years to move to Stuyvenberg castle in 1996.
 
The domain of Laeken is really a sort of "royal campus": the Château de Laeken (Philippe & Mathilde) and the serres (glasshouses) of Laeken, the Château du Belvédère (Albert & Paola), the Château du Stuyvenberg (Fabiola), the Château Val-Duchesse and the Villa Schonenberg (Astrid & Lorenz) all are located on that large domain. I can imagine Laeken must have been 'paradise' to Queen Fabiola.
 
Queen Mathilde the first nighty and yesterday we saw King Philippe in the Evening going to Stuyvenberg Castle. They spent part of the nights near their late beloved Aunt.
King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola started Philippe 's Education to be a good King.
When the Princes of Liege were so often not at home, TM were there.
There was real love between Mathilde and Fabiola.
There was no love between Fabiola and Lilian and no love between Fabiola and Paola, although a great Respect between King Albert II and Queen Fabiola.

I really think Philippe has lost a mother on Friday...not just a aunt. And it is really telling the fact that both Philippe and Mathilde are in a constant vigil (not just as the Regent Couple)
 
The domain of Laeken is really a sort of "royal campus": the Château de Laeken (Philippe & Mathilde) and the serres (glasshouses) of Laeken, the Château du Belvédère (Albert & Paola), the Château du Stuyvenberg (Fabiola), the Château Val-Duchesse and the Villa Schonenberg (Astrid & Lorenz) all are located on that large domain. I can imagine Laeken must have been 'paradise' to Queen Fabiola.

She did indeed dread leaving Laeken. The happiest years of her life were spent at Laeken. The palace itself is enormous, but Baudouin and Fabiola only kept six of it's rooms for their personal use. And even that was not private enough for them. So they built a small chalet for themselves on the Royal domain and spent as much time as possible alone there without any servants. Fabiola did all the cooking, and King Baudouin did the cleaning up. Their nephew Prince Dmitri of Yugoslavia remembers visiting them at their little cabin and being astonished that the King and Queen of the Belgians, with several luxurious homes and palaces at their disposal
,preferred to live the lives of "le petit bourgeois " as Dmitri called it. (Paul Belien, "A Throne for Brussels"):cool:
 
Le Soir has an online section dedicated to Fabiola's death. As she has no direct descendents, Fabiola's private assets have gone to "The Queen of Works", a non-profit organisation which was founded to commemorate Fabiola and Baudouin's wedding in 1960. The organisation focuses on those in Belgium who are less advantaged than others. According to Le Soir, the Palace is the original source for the information, though they (the Palace) are not going to release any further information.

Source: https://translate.google.com/transl...se-ses-condoleances-au-roi&edit-text=&act=url

Also in Le Soir, the Pope sent his condolences to King Philippe on the occasion of Queen Fabiola's death:

"Having learned with sorrow the death of her Majesty Queen Fabiola, I express to you and all the royal family, the government and the Belgian people my heartfelt condolences. I fervently pray to the Lord to welcome his faithful servant into his kingdom of light and peace, and he assures everyone that his death affects the comfort of hope".

Source: https://translate.google.com/transl...heritage-aux-oeuvres-reine&edit-text=&act=url

Hereditary Princess,

Fabiola did eventually reconcile with her brother Jaime. He was in attendance at King Baudouin's funeral. "Fabiolo" was not his real name, it was a cheeky nickname invented for him by the tabloids during his heyday.


I knew Queen Fabiola had a playboy actor brother and her father was Don Gonzalo de Mora, Marques de Casa Riera, Count de Mora and he died in 1957 and her mother Doña Blanca died in 1981.

As for the rest of the family I know very little and of the family relationships.

Ah OK, thank you both for the extra information. :flowers: What was the 'real' name of Fabiola's brother?
It will be interesting to see if any of her Spanish relatives will attend the funeral. I've read that her siblings have all passed away now, though some of her nieces and nephews or other Spanish relatives might attend, of course depending on how close they were to Fabiola.
 
I wonder what will become of La Villa Astrida, the Spanish holiday home in Andalucía that Baudouin and Fabiola purchased shortly after their wedding in the early 60's? They spent part of every summer of their marriage there and until her health began to fail Queen Fabiola continued to go to Astrida for her summer holidays. Villa Astrida is where King Baudouin died suddenly on July 31,1993.

As for her jewels, I know that there is a separate thread so I will be brief: If those incredible emeralds, diamonds, pearls, sapphires and rubies eventually wind up on Nicole Kidman, Amal Clooney, Penelope Cruz, Beyoncé, or some other starlet I will not be able deal with it!:eek:
 
how sad!!
R.I.P you're majesty.
 
Originally Posted by wartenberg7 View Post
[...] As far as I can recall she never represented the family or the country at an important event abroad [...]

She has, albeit some time ago. For example, she represented the Queen when Nigeria gained its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 October 1960, and opened the first Parliament on 3 October. Also undertaken royal tours , eg visits to Canada, Italy, Oman, Hungary, Norway, Japan, Thailand, Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands.

Having said that, I think it's unlikely she would go. I think DoE, Charles or Wessexes



Yes, all of this "centuries" ago...! And often she escorted her mother, the Dss of Kent, a widow at the time. Brothers went to boarding school or underwent military training. So, let´s forget about Alexandra at this funeral!
 
Yes, all of this "centuries" ago...! And often she escorted her mother, the Dss of Kent, a widow at the time. Brothers went to boarding school or underwent military training. So, let´s forget about Alexandra at this funeral!

I think there is a difference between the expected attendance by foreign royals as representing their royal house/royal family and the attendance of foreign royals as friends.
I suspect the British Royal Family will send a high level representation (and sorry I love Alexandra but she isn't a 'senior' enough royal for such an event), that may be in addition to members of the British RF who may want to attend if they were close to Fabiola or the Belgian Royals personally.

I don't think there's a need to be quite so flippant about people hypothetically attending a funeral.

On another subject...I'm glad the media are still being respectful and warm towards Fabiola despite the furor over the donation/trust funds.
 
Queen Mathilde the first nighty and yesterday we saw King Philippe in the Evening going to Stuyvenberg Castle. They spent part of the nights near their late beloved Aunt.
King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola started Philippe 's Education to be a good King.
When the Princes of Liege were so often not at home, TM were there.
There was real love between Mathilde and Fabiola.
There was no love between Fabiola and Lilian and no love between Fabiola and Paola, although a great Respect between King Albert II and Queen Fabiola.

I've never heard that there was no love between Fabiola and Paola, they always seemed perfectly at ease in each others company.
 
Yes, all of this "centuries" ago...! And often she escorted her mother, the Dss of Kent, a widow at the time. Brothers went to boarding school or underwent military training. So, let´s forget about Alexandra at this funeral!

I responded to your previous post. This one was unnecessary to say the least.
 
Didn't QEII herself attend the funeral of King Boudewijn?
I seem to remember she did, and if that was the case i'd expect someone from the direct "line" in Brittain to attend the funeral of Q.Fabiola...(so P.Charles or perhaps the DoE, if health permits it)
 
I wonder what will become of La Villa Astrida, the Spanish holiday home in Andalucía that Baudouin and Fabiola purchased shortly after their wedding in the early 60's? They spent part of every summer of their marriage there and until her health began to fail Queen Fabiola continued to go to Astrida for her summer holidays. Villa Astrida is where King Baudouin died suddenly on July 31,1993.

As for her jewels, I know that there is a separate thread so I will be brief: If those incredible emeralds, diamonds, pearls, sapphires and rubies eventually wind up on Nicole Kidman, Amal Clooney, Penelope Cruz, Beyoncé, or some other starlet I will not be able deal with it!:eek:

I think she probably left the jewels to Mathilde, after all they were very close and she's now the Queen, I really doubt those are going to be sold, no one wants a Lilian 2.0 situation and the BRF is really lacking in jewelry anyway so it would be the best solution IMO.
 
Didn't QEII herself attend the funeral of King Boudewijn?
I seem to remember she did, and if that was the case i'd expect someone from the direct "line" in Brittain to attend the funeral of Q.Fabiola...(so P.Charles or perhaps the DoE, if health permits it)

If it were not for his old age, I am pretty sure the DoE would attend Queen Fabiola's funeral. He may still go anyway. If he doesn't, the PoW should attend.

Changing topics, I read that Queen Fabiola, as expected, left instructions for her funeral. Does anyone know if the Belgian Royal Family will wear white ?
 
Didn't QEII herself attend the funeral of King Boudewijn?
I seem to remember she did, and if that was the case i'd expect someone from the direct "line" in Brittain to attend the funeral of Q.Fabiola...(so P.Charles or perhaps the DoE, if health permits it)

She was there : brief video caption

I do hope indeed there will be someone from the direct line.
 
:cry: I'm so deeply saddened by the loss of our dear queen. She was so friendly and sort of a grandmother for those who knew her. I had the chance to "know" her personally and she was always full of advice and very wise. I'm so glad she gave me words of wisdom I will carry in my heart forever.
I will always remember her as a sweet and nice person. I did not have the chance to meet king Baudouin, but thanks to her, I almost did. The love they had for each other is an exemple, and the way she canalized the pain and grief she experienced trough her life to make the world better is amazing. I think it's a feast up there since she and her dear husband she loved so much are finaly reunited :cry:

:belgiumflag: R.I.P. Dear Fabiola :heart:
 
Have any foreign royals confirmed their attendance at the Funeral Mass for Queen Fabiola on Friday?
 
Perhaps some parents of the queen Fabiola are living temporary in Stuyvenberg or in hôtels of Bruxelles.
 
Well, Queen Fabiola's parents have been dead for many, many years. I think you mean her nephews and nieces and their children? Yes I agree.


Laeken is probably where family from Lichtenstein and Luxembourg will be staying temporarily.
 
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